In celebration of Father’s Day, we spoke to ECR presenter Darren Maule about his special relationship with his daughter Mouse. Darren shares what he loves the most about being a dad, his fondest daddy-daughter memory and some of the things only dads raising daughters will understand.

The relationship between a father and a daughter is a special one. It is said that a father is his daughter’s first love and no other love in this world is like the love a father has for his little girl.

For ECR presenter, Darren Maule, being a dad is one of the things he cherishes the most. “Reading bedtime stories, having a little human being pressing her cold feet up against your face, how kids marvel at things we take for granted, are some of the things I love most about being a dad. But my favourite is having the little natural conversations, just talking and learning about each other. It’s the little chats that I love.”

Darren adds that he has learned the importance of letting children be without imposing anything on them. “I never understood a famous Kahlil Gibran quote until I had the child of my own. It said: “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself”. You only get that when you have your own child. You love your child, you protect your child, but we run the risk of dumping our values, and prejudices onto our kids. Don’t put your prejudices on your child, let them make their own decisions.”

“I was there for the first moment my daughter spoke. Mum was at work and I was at home because I worked evenings as a comedian. We had a substantial bet going on. I’m not embarrassed to say that we coerced Mouse to say mama or dada first. The word that came out of her mouth was “no”. It was the only commonly used word as we used to fight for our place. I like that her word was “no” – it was like she was saying “I’m choosing to be me and do me”.

When it comes to fondest daddy-daughter moment, Darren says “it changes and gets upgraded every week. Yesterday, the mouse was doing her homework on her own and set schedules for herself to study. I walked into her room and she had the atlas pressed up against the window so she can draw the outline of a country. She did all this on her own. She looked at me as if she did something wrong, but she was just this little girl and the sun fell on her face – she was so angelic. I stopped and took it all in, she is just my perfect human being.”

Below Darren shares five fun and quirky things only dads with daughters will understand:
1. Eggs and beans is a perfectly normal supper meal.
2. Mouse and Dad know each other’s PlayStation avatars.
3. We know that the end of the world is an apocalypse.
4. Dad and Mouse can have matching pink fluffy slippers and that’s all cool.
5. There is a hierarchy of teddy bears that get tucked in at night with their individual noises. Ours is
(in order of importance) Ugly Cat, emoji, Fish, rhino, big bear and hot water penguin.

What do you appreciate most about your dad? Share with us in the comments section below.